Various light-collimating films are known. See for example U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,621,898; 5,204,160; and 6,398,370. Such light-collimating films typically include a light transmissive film having a plurality of parallel grooves wherein the grooves comprise a light-absorbing material.
Light-collimating films can be placed proximate a display surface, image surface, or other surface to be viewed. At normal incidence, (i.e. 0 degree viewing angle) where a viewer is looking at an image through the light-collimating film in a direction that is perpendicular to the film surface, the image is viewable. As the viewing angle increases, the amount of light transmitted through the light-collimating film decreases until a maximum viewing angle is reached where substantially all the light is blocked by the light-absorbing material and the image is no longer viewable. This can provide privacy to a viewer by blocking observation by others that are outside a typical range of viewing angles.
Light-collimating films prepared by molding and ultraviolet curing a polymerizable resin on a polycarbonate substrate are commercially available from 3M Company, St. Paul, Minn., under the trade designation “3M™ Filters for Notebook Computers and LCD Monitors”.
Light-collimating films are also distributed by Elecom of Japan.
Industry would find advantage in light-collimating film prepared from alternative polymerizable resin compositions such as compositions that provide improved performance or processing advantages.